Patrick John Ryan

Patrick John Ryan (20 February 1831-11 February 1911) was Archbishop of Philadelphia from 1884 to 1911, succeeding James Frederick Wood and preceding Edmond Francis Prendergast.

Biography
Patrick John Ryan was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1831, and he graduated from Carlow College in 1852, and he left for the United States that same year. He served as a professor of English literature at a seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and he was ordained a Catholic priest under Peter Richard Kenrick. He served as a prison chaplain during the American Civil War, and he became Coadjutator Archbishop of St. Louis in 1872. In 1884, however, he became Archbishop of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, and he erected 170 churches and 82 schools during his 27-year-long tenure. He also hired 322 more priests and 1,545 nuns as the Catholic population of Philadelphia grew. He died in 1911 at the age of 79.